The Boeing Co. announced April 3 it delivered 110 commercial aircraft in the first quarter of fiscal year 2002, down 12 from the number delivered a year ago at this time. Boeing officials announced the company had delivered three 717 aircraft, 59 next-generation 737s, eight 747s, 12 757s, 12 767s and 16 777s. Although down slightly from last year, the first-quarter deliveries are in line with the company's revised projections of 380 commercial aircraft deliveries by year's end.
F-2 WORK: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics will manufacture components, including aft fuselages and wing leading-edge flaps, for 12 Japanese F-2 fighters under a $200 million contract from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Lockheed Martin already is producing components for the first 45 F-2 aircraft under five previous annual contracts, according to the company. The latest contract is the largest award yet for the work, with deliveries to start in April 2003. The F-2 is based on the design of Lockheed Martin's F-16.
Lockheed Martin Corp. will not offer additional concessions to striking workers at its military aeronautics facility in Marietta, Ga., according to an internal document obtained by The DAILY. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers local 709 voted to strike March 10 after disagreeing with the company's final salary and benefits package (DAILY, March 12). The document says the company has made its best and final offer.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which would result from a single, crude nuclear weapon detonated in space above America, represents a very real and potentially disastrous asymmetric threat, according to Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) EMP effects can result from any nuclear blast occurring more than 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth. EMPs have no effects on the human body, but can wipe out microelectronics systems at distances of hundreds of miles.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has endorsed a proposal for a new standing joint task force headquarters and added that it does not need acquisition authority. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) submitted to Congress last year said that DOD would establish a joint headquarters to "provide uniform standard operating procedures, tactics, techniques and technical system requirements, with the ability to move expertise among Commands."
Dassault Aviation accused South Korean military officials of unfairly favoring the Boeing Co. in a multi-billion fighter jet competition and filed a lawsuit to halt the program, the Associated Press reported April 4. 'Definite breach of fairness' Yves Robins, Dassault's vice president of international relations, reportedly said Dassault has "definite reasons to believe there is a breach of fairness and a breach of transparency in the competition."
LAUNCH DELAY: The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station has been delayed until at least April 7 while NASA investigates and repairs a hydrogen leak on the shuttle's mobile launching pad. NASA said the leak appears to be caused by a failed weld.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's new Applied Research Technology Demonstrator (ARTD) laboratory achieved full operating capacity on March 31, about nine months ahead of schedule. The lab, located in Portsmouth, Hampshire, was created by the MOD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). The one million pound ($1.43 million) facility is part of the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories (CFBL) international program, which links scientists and defense teams from the U.K. with colleagues in the U.S., NATO, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The airframes of the Air Force's B-52 bombers will have to be monitored for "unforeseen aging problems" as the aircraft continue to be used in the war on terrorism, according to Navy Adm. James Ellis, commander-in-chief of U.S. Strategic Command, who testified last month before the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces panel. The Air Force's 94 B-52s are more than 40 years old on average, and the B-52 is scheduled to remain in service until about 2040.
A Lockheed Martin Corp. official warned April 4 that the Netherlands will jeopardize the ability of its companies to help develop and produce the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter if the Dutch government postpones a decision on joining the program by several months.
Defense officials in the Czech Republic have stressed that the country's air space is secure, despite reports that it now has as few as four outdated MiG-21s available at any one time. Czech daily Pravo, quoting defense sources, said the country was left this week with around eight operational MiG-21s after the air force decommissioned the last 10 obsolete SU-22s in service. The newspaper said as many as half of these are in poor condition. According to official ministry of defense statistics, the country had 21 MiG-21s in its fleet in 2000.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) won't concede the military tanker market to the Boeing Co. despite the Air Force's decision last week to explore tanker leasing options with Boeing instead of Airbus, according to an EADS spokesman. Sam Adcock, vice president of government and public affairs, said EADS, the majority owner of Airbus Industrie, "learned a lot" in the competition with Boeing.
Hoping to boost the Mid-Atlantic region's role in aerospace-related technology development, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said April 3 that he is pushing to create a cutting-edge rotorcraft research center near the Boeing Co.'s rotorcraft plant in suburban Philadelphia.
The number of attack submarines scheduled to be built over the next decade will drop dramatically now that several Cold War-era shipbuilding programs are nearly complete, according to a report released by Forecast International Inc. Stuart Slade, Forecast International senior naval analyst and author of the "Undersea Warfare Market" report, said he expects 74 hulls, valued at $60.5 billion, to be built over the next 10 years.
Despite a 1994 congressional ban on developing new nuclear payloads, engineers in the Department of Energy are working on conceptual studies to develop low-yield nuclear weapons, according to Gen. John A. Gordon, the head the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and undersecretary of energy for nuclear security.
China could display its J-10 fighter aircraft for the first time at the Zhuhai airshow in November, according to Chinese officials who attended Singapore's Asian Aerospace exhibition in March.
NASA has agreed to require better accounts of spare parts it buys from the Boeing Co. for the International Space Station (ISS), according to a new agency inspector general report. NASA's Office of Inspector General audited ISS spare parts costs and determined that "NASA generally did not properly acquire and account for ISS spare parts," says the report, released April 2.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has received a $38.4 million Air Force contract for advanced procurement of the 17th E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft, the company announced April 3. Refurbishment and conversion work on the former U.S. Air Force EC-18 Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft began this week, according to the company.
Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee whose state includes the Boeing Co.'s St. Louis-based Military Aircraft and Missile Systems unit, has asked the Navy to brief him on a proposal to cut procurement of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, according to an aide to the senator.
The Army's howitzer-launched QuickLook unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is on schedule for its first full-system demonstration in September. QuickLook is an expendable, GPS-guided loitering UAV capable of transmitting imagery, providing target coordinates, and performing battle damage assessment for up to 45 minutes.
Roger Krone will become vice president of Strategic Projects. Patrick Shanahan will succeed Krone as vice president and general manager of U.S. Army programs for Boeing Military Aircraft and Missiles Systems. Francisco Escarti has been named vice president, business development, Europe. Tim Neale has been named director of communications.
